By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press Writer
LUBBOCK, Texas- Thirty people convicted in a discredited drug bust that some alleged was racially motivated and that sent dozens to prison on bogus charges had their criminal records wiped clean.
Visiting Judge Ron Chapman ordered the records expunged Tuesday. At an evidentiary hearing in June 2003, the judge called the undercover agent who built the cases, Tom Coleman, “simply not a credible witness under oath.”
Coleman arrested 46 people, most of them black, in this small, predominantly white farming community, leading civil rights groups to question if the busts were racially motivated.
Coleman worked alone and no drugs were ever found, but 38 defendants were convicted or reached plea deals.
Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 of the defendants in 2003. Last year, 45 of those who were arrested shared a $6 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit.
The charges could not be expunged until the State Bar of Texas finished its case in July with former prosecutor Terry McEachern. He was accused of withholding information from defense attorneys about Coleman’s criminal history.
The bar allowed McEachern, who was defeated in a March 2004 re-election bid, to keep his law license but placed him on probation until June 2007.
Some did not need to have their records expunged because the charges would be automatically removed from their record upon completion of probation, attorney Jeff Blackburn said.
Coleman was convicted in January of perjury and sentenced to 10 years probation. He is appealing.